So nobody tried to actually communicate with the man face to face, instead deploying the pepper spray and tasing him. And even after they found out the screwed up they still tried to charge him? Get a grip! The city will be lucky if the only thing filed is a formal complaint.

you have to be some kind of retarded. is every cop so scared of normal civilians that they just go around tasing everyone?

when i was working as a bouncer we often had people falling asleep or using the stalls for their illegal activities. we never tased anyone and in a worst case scenario we had to carry someone out with their pants still down.

Diarrhea is bad enough on its own, but add pepper spray, electrocution and being cuffed and stuffed. That’s one for the record books. Good news is he will get enough money to buy some Imodium to clear up the diarrhea.

do they allow these thugs such weapons, the blind will have more then just blindness to deal with like pain, now this poor guy will have a heap more to deal with after their cruel assault and they have the audacity to attempt to charge him as well. I hope someone takes them to court he can't defend himself. They should be locked up not given and not the authority the blatantly attack people as and when they feel like it, especially someone as vulnerable as him!

@ Mr Angel. And now they will have even better tasers to attack innocent human beings, I just cannot believe how corrupt this world still is.

an umbrella?what the hell could he have done with an umbrella that was worth being pepper'd and tazed? poke someone in the belly? spray them with water? omg! he's armed with a mop! taze 'im! is that a magazine? mace! get the mace! oh no, oh no, oh no he's got a roll of paper towels! bomb the store!

* Yes, an umbrella can be a dangerous weapon. Someone bent on doing damage could turn a plastic spork into a deadly weapon, let alone an umbrella. Hell, Britney Spears almost killed an SUV with an umbrella. Also, the Batman's life was in danger many times from the weaponized umbrellas of the Penguin.

* I love how everyone expects the police to always know everything before they go into a situation and always act as if absolutely nothing wrong could possibly be going on For all the cops knew someone was in the bathroom raping another, unable to call for help. Or, maybe a murder had happened and the guy was barricading himself in. They don't know. They got no response from the person inside other than resistance. So they used some level of force - non-lethal - to obtain control of the situation.

* There's not a lot of information here. Was the guy alone? If not, where was his companion to help resolve the situation? What type of bathroom was this? Did it have multiple stalls or was it a single room? Did the store employees even try to figure out what was going on? I would assume they had a key. They could have said "I work for the store and am concerned for your safety. Please respond. If you do not respond, I will try to come in. If I can't get in, I'll have to call the police." But no, they probably thought something unsafe was happening inside and called police, who acted accordingly. Blame the store, not the police.

* If someone has extraordinary communication needs, then extraordinary steps should be taken to avoid these types of situations in the first place, on both sides. Especially if the same someone is prone to thinking the devil is trying to get him. Maybe if the parents wouldn't have put such fears in this guy's head, he wouldn't have freaked. Blame the parents, not the police.

But yeah, just like always... let's ramp up the anti-police rhetoric, that's helpful.

Actually, everything in the source says he was locked in a bathroom, not just a single toilet stall. So again, for all anyone knew, a rape or murder could've happened inside.

Also, if you are convinced there were no safety issues, perhaps you should direct your anger over the situation at the store for calling in the police, not the police for doing what they were called to do.

If the situation were a little different, and the store did nothing about a person locked in the bathroom for an extended period of time, and the person in the bathroom had been attacked or killed and left locked inside, you'd be lamenting the state of humanity that ignored an obviously abnormal situation and avoided getting involved.

you're right, almost any object can be considered a lethal weapon and that the police shot first and didn't wait for any indication of lethal intent from the guy holding the umbrella scares the heck out of me. that justifies tazing someone for almost anything which seems to be happening more and more. "the suspect brandished a potentially deady weapon, a set car keys." "he was holding a scalding cup of coffee, that's a potentially dangerous weapon." "her fingernails looked to me like potentially lethal weapons." hell my teeth are lethal weapons! if i smile at a cop, am i threatening them with deadly force and need to be maced? i agree that it was irresponsible to leave that man without a caretaker but that doesn't excuse the poor decision making skills among those we trust with our everyday safety. there's just not enough good cops around to balance out the idiots they allow in uniform. i don't think there ever has been, tho.

Nicohlis...be honest...is there any situation in which you would not defend the actions of a police officer? Tasering a retarded deaf man...I mean where do you go from there? Beating a paraplegic? Shooting a baby? (The baby could have been a rapist!)

Lawsuit is def in order here and unpaid suspensions for the officers involved.

My cousin is a cop and he just got suspended for not pulling off a chase he is an idiot of course but he is getting 1 week PAID SUSPENSION. What kind of punishment is that. He basically is laughing about it and say thanks for the vacation

@calilac- I say these police issues are the results of escalation. Every time a civilian resists and endangers a cop, a cop is quicker to pull a taser. Every time a cop tases, the civilian is quicker to resist and defy. And so on... If someone gouges an officer with a set of keys... if someone throws scalding coffee in the face of a police officer... If people are upset the police find things threatening, blame the criminals that gave the police reason to suspect a threat.

@koenig32- They didn't taser a retarded deaf man - they tasered a person not responding to their calls, resisting their attempts to enter the confined area, and who had an object which could do serious damage in such a confined area. They didn't know he was deaf or mentally disabled until *after* they had peppered, tasered, and extracted him. There are plenty of situations I won't defend. However, many people on this site tend to think police officers should be murdered just for putting on a uniform. I don't.

I think this issue pivoted on the fact that he resisted and blocked the door. If that hadn't happened, there would be no story. If he was so disabled, where was a caretaker to make sure he was OK? Why did his parents fill his head with devil fears so that he would react this way to police? Why did the store (apparently) immediately call the police instead of trying to figure out the issue on their own? Why wasn't this whole situation avoided in the first place?

yeah, sure, i see how it's just an escalating cycle but that doesn't make it all right. that makes it even worse. there are good cops out there who try to find solutions other than pulling a taser on a scared sheeple but too many are using the taser as a cure-all. shepards turned to wolves and we all know you can't blame a wolf for killing and eating the herd, that's just its nature. we should just let the wild dogs loose now and be done with it.

OK here is a side not many have mentioned. The Dollar General store clerk that allowed him in the back room where the bathroom was HAD to know something was wrong with him. The article says that as soon as he could he showed them his card saying he is deaf, so you know he has to have a profound speech impediment.

@nicholis-Dollar General bathrooms are usually a literal room with a toilet and a sink. I had to take my little one in the back once. It even had boxes stacked in it.

Back to the clerk. The staff usually has a no public restroom policy and the only times I have seen them let someone back there is a small child or someone with a disability. And maybe just maybe someone could have slipped a piece of paper under there asking if he was ok before they called the police.